5 Top Customer Service Articles for the Week of April 20, 2015

That said, I like another question, which is this: If you can think of one thing to make the experience you have with us even better, what would it be? This is an especially important question to pose to your happy customers (your promoters) because if a number of your happy customers who already think you are great are offering similar suggestions, you have an opportunity to improve on greatness.

Identifying Opportunities For Awesome In Customer Service by Jenny Dempsy

(Communicate Better Blog) In customer service, we relational, positive folks have a magical way of spinning the negative situations into opportunities for improvement. And, we should be darn proud of this!

My Comment: There is a great concept packed into this small article: Opportunity for Awesome. Complaints are opportunities to rise to the occasion. But why wait for a complaint to be awesome? Every interaction you have is an Opportunity for Awesome – or as I like to say, an opportunity to create a Moment of Magic®!

Brands think they provide great customer experience, consumers disagree by Graham Charlton

(Econsultancy) When competitors with better prices are just a click away, customer experience (CX) is a key differentiator for brands.

My Comment: This article is spot-on. Many companies think they deliver great customer service or create a great customer experience, but unfortunately, in many companies, the customers have a different opinion. It’s worth the effort to survey both the customers and the employees of a company – especially leadership – to see if the CSAT scores align. If not (and the customer’s scores are lower), there is work to do!

7 Ways You Can Earn Your Customer’s Loyalty by Jonha Revesencio

(Huffington Post) A way to boost loyalty is to build brand identity. The stronger a customer identifies with your brand, the stronger the loyalty will inevitably be. So just how do you build this type of customer loyalty? Here are a few tips from the experts to help you get started.

My Comment: Another great list of ways to create customer loyalty. I like this list because it ties marketing and customer service together. But I do have an issue with number five, which is, “The Customer Is Always Right.” I understand the concept and agree with the spirit of it, but regardless of how you treat your customers, sometimes they aren’t right. But they are always the customer, so let them be wrong with dignity and respect. You can still have your customer-focused guidelines for taking care of complaints, returns, etc. (and get that bump in sales as a result), but that doesn’t mean they are always right. Still, I love this article. Great ideas and advice!

Voice of the Customer – Great! But what is it? by Ian Williams

(The Customer Experience Blog) The term Voice of the Customer is widely spoken about in the Customer Experience world and, alongside Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Effort Score, is considered to be one of the most important research techniques/ metrics on offer to CX professionals. That being said, for a few different reasons, it is also arguably the most mysterious and misunderstood of all of the CX measurement techniques.

My Comment: I’ve worked with a lot of companies that use Voice of the Customer as a way to understand what a customer wants, needs, expects, etc. I always ask how they go about getting the Voice of the Customer, and find that there are many ways to skin this cat. This article gives a clear definition of the meaning of VOC, where it came from and how it’s used.